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Tucson writer Shannon Cain explores female protagonists living in ways that are outside the mainstream in her book of short stories, The Necessity of Certain Behaviors.

By Liz Massey

Photo by Sarah Prall

Queer Notions

Tucson writer Shannon Cain explores relationships, civics in her work

In the world of fiction writing, moving faster is not always better. Shannon Cain's latest work, a book of short stories titled The Necessity of Certain Behaviors, took eight years to complete.

Along the way, she said, the nine stories in the volume garnered 234 rejection slips from various publications.

But that pace suits Cain just fine. "My writing needs time to steep, to settle and to simmer," she said.

Cain's patient approach to her craft has yielded positive results. Her book won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, a $15,000 award given to the best collection of previously unpublished short stories, which Cain calls "a big deal in my tiny world."

The Tucson woman is in the midst of a six-month, 20-city book tour, a journey she is balancing with her day job as a writing coach.

The stories in The Necessity of Certain Behaviors vary in their setting and action, but most feature female protagonists who are forthrightly bisexual and living in ways that are outside of the American mainstream:

In the collection's title story, a world traveler walks away from civilization into a remote village whose residents practice complicated and oftentimes comical love rituals.
In "This Is How It Starts," a young artist/professional dog-walker living in a rent-controlled New York City apartment wonders if she will be forced to choose between the affections of her female and male lovers.
In the "Queer Zoo," a closeted heterosexual man must risk everything to do what he thinks is right at the same-sex-oriented nature preserve where he works.

Cain indicated that the stories in the book were both highly autobiographical and "utterly untrue."

"I'm bisexual, and I'm interested in the ways in which bisexuality has been typecast, as well as the gray areas that exist in that topic area," she said. "My characters are people who have made extreme choices."

One story element that's noticeably absent from Cain's stories is conflict driven by homophobia, which she indicated was a purposeful choice.

"I've created a world where other-than-mainstream sexuality is the norm," she said. "These characters are not struggling with hatred or external forces telling them they are bad. I've created the world I wished I lived in."

Although her characters rarely become activists, Cain herself spent many years working for feminist and LGBT-themed nonprofits before pursuing her graduate degree in creative writing in her 30s.

From 2005 to 2009, she worked as executive director of Kore Press, an independent feminist publishing company based in Tucson, before stepping down recently to volunteer as the fiction editor for the press.

"I've worked for women's issues all my life," she said.

"(At Kore Press), I've been able to combine my interests in literature and activism. Kore is a healthy, thriving independent press — that's rare!"

Cain's activist bent also shines through in her current writing project, "Tucson, The Novel: An Experiment in Literature and Civil Discourse." The book touches upon the tensions present in a long-term marriage, the potential damage to historic areas by unchecked land development and the risks presented by engaging in civil disobedience.

She is reading the draft-in-progress, in three-minute segments, at the Tucson City Council's weekly public comment period. She has received an individual artist grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts to work on the novel — something she says is indicative of the interest that the book's topic and its approach are generating.

"My real question in this book is civil discourse and its relationship with storytelling and literature," Cain said. "After the Tucson shootings (in January 2011), we saw the worst examples of civil discourse. My project took on additional weight after that."

As she molds her novel into its final form, Cain is using her role as a coach to shape the future of American literature. She suggested that aspiring LGBT authors join the literature community if they desire to find a lasting audience.

"Study with good teachers, support your fellow writers and be a good literary citizen," Cain said. "Buy books, support independent presses, and above all, write, because that is how you get to be a writer." -E

VITAL STATISTICS

The Necessity of Certain Behaviors
By Shannon Cain
University of Pittsburgh Press
www.shannoncain.com/Shannon_Cain/Shannon_Cain.html.

The Necessity of Certain Behaviors

Review: Short story collection chronicles choices at life's crossroads

The Necessity of Certain Behaviors manages to be refreshing, funny and disturbing all at the same time.

The settings of Shannon Cain's nine short stories vary wildly — from the staid confines of a rent-controlled New York City apartment to a careening cross-country trek taken by a wayward AAA employee who has been inserting deliberate detours into the TripTik maps of clients. What ties the tales together is a common theme: almost every protagonist is at a crossroads in life, re-evaluating their relationships, their family narratives and their previous life choices.

Cain's frank, but not explicit, writing about sexuality grounds the stories and gives many of them a ring of authenticity.

While a couple of the stories seem to end rather abruptly, leaving the reader wanting more, overall, these stories conclude with the lead character emerging from their predicament wiser, and occasionally sadder, for their experience. — Liz Massey